A bronze
Lorica Segmentata shoulder hinge for the Corbridge(earliest) style of
segmented plate armor. The standard armor for the Roman Legionary during
Rome's prime.

All the
rivets are still in place with the scribed concentric rings surrounding
them, from when the hinge was hammered to the armor.

The reverse
side of the hinge still shows remnants of the iron armor plate around the
rivets and the center hinge is largely still intact.

This type
of armor had many advantages over scale mail and chain mail, primarily
being that it could withstand much harder impacts from pointed weapons
while still allowing a good amount of flexibility. The only inherent
weakness, at least on these earlier versions was that all the buckles and
hinges could easily break and required constant repair. Furthermore the
leather straps trapped in moisture on the iron, making it harder to keep
corrosion free. This early version was also relatively hard to put on and
invariably required a second person to do the buckles up. It was not until
the Newstead type that the buckles, hinges and laces were largely done away with.
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